from the rounded-corners-to-go-around-corners dept.
Apple has an order of magnitude more cars in its self-driving fleet:
Apple has expanded its fleet of self-driving cars in California, registering an additional two dozen vehicles with the state's Department of Motor Vehicles. It's a significant expansion for a company that has been seen as lagging in the race to build self-driving cars.
Apple originally registered three Lexus Rx450h SUVs under its permit to test autonomous vehicles in April 2017. Since then, it has acquired an additional 24 Lexus SUVs, according to the DMV: two in July, seven in October, two in November, six in December, and seven in January. The news was first reported by Bloomberg.
Apple has scaled back its self-driving car plans from creating a vehicle to creating software for them.
Related Stories
https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/30/16948356/waymo-google-fiat-chrysler-pacfica-minivan-self-driving
Waymo, the self-driving unit of Google parent Alphabet, has reached a deal with one of Detroit's Big Three automakers to dramatically expand its fleet of autonomous vehicles. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles announced today that it would supply "thousands" of additional Chrysler Pacifica minivans to Waymo, with the first deliveries starting at the end of 2018.
Neither Waymo nor FCA would disclose the specific number of vehicles that were bought, nor the amount of money that was trading hands. The manufacturer's suggested retail price for the 2018 Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivan starts at $39,995. A thousand minivans would cost $40 million, so this was at the very least an eight-figure deal.
Waymo currently has 600 of FCA's minivans in its fleet, some of which are used to shuttle real people around for its Early Rider program in Arizona. The first 100 were delivered when the partnership was announced in May 2016, and an additional 500 were delivered in 2017. The minivans are plug-in hybrid variants with Waymo's self-driving hardware and software built in. The companies co-staff a facility in Michigan, near FCA's US headquarters, to engineer the vehicles. The company also owns a fleet of self-driving Lexus RX SUVs that is has been phasing out in favor of the new minivans. (The cute "Firefly" prototypes were also phased out last year.)
Also at Ars Technica and Bloomberg.
Previously: Apple Expands Self-Driving Fleet From 3 to 27 Cars
(Score: -1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday January 28 2018, @01:38AM (1 child)
Now, we all know the only demographic that drives Lexus SUVs -- Asian women. Asian women congregate only in safe, White neighborhoods.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 28 2018, @02:39AM
Some of these days, one of them will bobbit you.
You are safe only in Mexican neighbourhoods, relocate quickly there. I heard you like mariachi anyway.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday January 29 2018, @05:29PM
Microsoft didn't get where it is today by being a Hardware company. Apple on the other hand has been much more into the hardware from the get go. It's probably for the best that they chose to do software only. Apple + Car is probably a Happy Place for quite some number of Apple fans.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"